The Car Connection Expert Review

I’m writing to pay you
a compliment on your odometer fraud article. As a budding writer I was taken by
your flair for grabbing the reader into the well-written article with your
colorful wording and phrases. Well done. I am currently writing an article about
government job-training school fraud...it’s all the same...smoke and mirrors.

J.

I wanted to respond to someone at
your site concerning an article published on AOL’s front page about used car
dealerships. I find the article not only ridiculously exaggerated, by highly
unlikely as well as untrue. I have been in the automotive retail business for
almost 15 years now. I’ve been a service manager for both new and used
dealerships as well as a business manager, new car sales manager, and used car
sales manager. Never, at any of the dealerships I’ve worked, has any of your
mentioned practices occurred. No wonder potential customers come to a dealership
expecting the worst. They read articles like this. Now, that said, I will agree
that in times past, dealers did engage in this sort of thing. However, with laws
governing almost every aspect of sales in general, it is extremely rare to find
those practices continuing today.

Just another point of view.

Lisa HeidenreichHeidenreich
Motors, LLC

Just
curious, but why all the low blows to used-car salespeople. I do not understand
why I have to come home every night to see some new article about how to stick
it to the car dealership, when you and I both know that the automotive industry
is a substantial unit of the
U.S.
economy.
Have you ever thought about writing a positive article? Have you thought
about the impact that your articles have? Your articles make everyone
believe that “profit” is a four-letter word. Why take food from my family?

I’m a
Detroit kid living in
Europe . I used to play in the GM buildings when I was kid
living near
Grand Blvd. I grew up during the muscle car era and cruised
north Woodward with the best of them. But I like my 2005 Opel Vectra. Rides and
drives well, with only a 1.6-liter four-banger. Quiet as a church and handles
the roads like a good road car should. Of course paying nearly $5 bucks a gallon
and you change your perceptions. Oh I miss the automatic tranny and the cruise
control, but I am comfortable in the car. We load it up and hit the road and
never a complaint. I’m no GM fan, what I have is a ‘fleet’ or company car. But
there are two different cultures between Europe and
North America . I’m here six years and I’m not sure I haven’t changed a
bit. Americans are just used to consumption — bigger is better. That’s not going
to change. When we come to
Detroit on vacation we rent something big,
maybe a van. My Irish wife is amazed at the room, the size of the roads, the
whole American driving experience. She grew up taking a bus or walking — what a
concept. Still does.

I appreciate your comments. I’ve
always thought the brass at the Big 3 envied Euro this and that while the Asian
makers walked right in and stole the market. There are good cars on both sides
of the
Atlantic , but as long as the cultures
are different the products will be different.

Although your comments about the
Contour and Catera aren’t too far off-base, this comment…

“The most successful of the
Global/European platform cars sold here is the Chevy Malibu, the fleet special,
which even GM executives say is a design bore.”

...along with a number of other
off-base comments, are ridiculous.
You obviously don’t know the difference between cars brought straight
over, and those sharing a global architecture. If anything, GM did too much
re-engineering for the
U.S. versions of Epsilon! The
Malibu, G6, and Aura are all significantly
different than European counterparts (the latest Opel even conforms to the
U.S. concept Aura styling). True, the
Malibu was
initially a design bore, but the latest update makes it just as exhilarating as
a Camry if not more.

Please don’t waste readers’ time
with biased and uninformed stories such as these. It is an insult to our
intelligence, and yours.

First, I too am an enthusiast. I
have followed racing my entire life. I have been collecting model cars for most
of that same life. I now have about 600 or such, and probably 30 percent are
racing cars and at least 15 percent are Ferraris. I also am a retired Chrysler
engineer after more than 30 years engine testing and development. And I have to
admit, I too would probably not be crazy about the Montego. Certainly not with
memories of Charger R/Ts, Duster 340s, and a couple of Roadrunners, not to
mention two more recent Daytona Turbos. You know, the forgotten one from the
’80s.

But with the “Big Two” in deep
trouble and the Asians panting for more and more U.S. market share, and our own
government turning a blind eye toward all the advantages enjoyed by the Asians,
don’t you think our own automotive press could at least be fair in their
evaluations of American cars? The snarling hatchet job you did on the Montego
could have retained all the original content and, if rearranged, would have
given a much more positive picture of the car. What would it hurt to put the
good stuff first once in a while?

Disgustedly yours,

Pete Hagenbuch

I
am a “retired” automotive executive who has had the opportunity to supply, deal
with, and drive, all vehicles produced by the OEMs.

I
am appalled and disgusted at the negative and biased reporting of Ford and
GM vehicles. What is “a sedan with a minivan’s soul” supposed to mean? This is
biased reporting, it’s not factual, it’s not informative and it’s not relative.
You gush over other vehicles (non-Ford/GM) with no style, no performance,
and no bells and whistles! But with anything Ford and GM it’s NEGATIVO! It
appears that good, solid, attractive, and cost-effective vehicles
manufactured by Ford and GM are maligned and taunted.

I’m a frequent reader of your
great Internet page almost for two years, and your information is very good or
excellent in general, but it’s sad to read the column of the World Report,
because the 99 percent of the world is
Brazil. I mean, where is the
rest of the world, or at least the top producers like
Germany,
Japan,
U.K.,
France,
Germany,
Italy,
China,
Mexico,
Canada, and
Russia, or
others, or is it that this page is owned by Brazilians or you have only one
reporter in the world?

To be professional anywhere, you
must be impartial, and it sometimes looks that your page is more pro-Brazilian
than a really world report, or you must change that column to the BRAZIL
REPORT.

Greetings... nothing personal,
just and humble appreciation.

Alejandro
Thomassiny

Editor’s note: TCC includes news
from South Korea
, Europe and
China
in this section as well.

Even
Cargirl ticks them off

I have to
at least put in my two cents about what cars women want. I personally am
offended that most of the cars listed are not even American made cars, like
Dodge, Ford, and Chevy.

I am a
36-year-old single mom, my daughter is 18, and I prefer vintage muscle cars to
the cheap crap they make nowadays. If I had only more modern cars to choose
from, sports type, I personally like the Chrysler Crossfire. Otherwise the
list of vehicles provided I wouldn’t drive 99 percent of them if they were given
to me as a gift.

And just
for the record I own a 2003 Dodge Dakota and a 1975 Plymouth Duster. You can
NEVER go wrong with a vintage American-made muscle car.

Jennifer

Jacksonville,
Fla.

Marriage
proposals, anyone?

What
makes you think that women have the money to buy BMW’s, HUMMERS, Caddys, and any
other high-priced cars that you mentioned your article? I read your article
and probably will never be able to buy any of the cars that you suggested for
women.

I am
79 and I bought a 1999 Camry for $24,000 new and I PROBABLY WILL BUY THAT AGAIN
OR SMALLER.

Where
are you getting your facts for that article? In all the years I have been
driving, I never had a car that you suggest. I was lucky when I had the
four-door sedan, which was a Mercury, Buick, Ford, or a Toyota
.

Get
with it. Average women don’t buy those high-priced cars. I dream about
it, but that is as far as I go.

On December 17, 2005, you posted
an article authored by Bengt Halvorson in The CarConnection.com newsletter that
makes several statements about the professional carwash industry that demand a
response.

Mr. Halvorson cleverly uses
language designed to distort the truth. For instance, he writes that car
damage can occur in professional car washes. It can but does today in
less than one tenth of one percent of the time. He writes that “touchless”
car washes don’t damage the finish, but they won’t likely get off all of
the deposits. The truth is that touchless car washes are likely to get all
the deposits off though they may not always. Every major oil company in
America is installing “touchless” car
washes in conjunction with their gas stations and convenience stores and if they
didn’t clean cars, the oil companies wouldn’t be spending millions of dollars to
do it!

Professional carwashing is the
only responsible way to protect the appearance of your car. Professional
car washes are now the preferred method of washing of two thirds of the American
public and 100 percent of environmentalists. The professional car wash
industry is a $23.9 billion industry. It has succeeded because it has
changed a great deal since the last time Mr. Halvorson took his car to a car
wash. He should try it today — he might change his view of the industry.

Mark O. Thorsby

Executive Director, International
Carwash Association

In Mark Thorsby’s March 3rd Letter
to the Editor he states: “The truth is that touchless car washes are likely to
get all the deposits off though they may not always. Every major oil company in
America is installing ‘touchless’ car
washes in conjunction with their gas stations and convenience stores and if they
didn’t clean cars, the oil companies wouldn’t be spending millions of dollars to
do it!”

As the spokesperson for the
International Carwash Association, I realize his job is to promote the use
of commercial car washes, but it would help if his statements
were feasible. Saying a touchless car wash gets the dirt off is like
saying rinsing your mouth with water is as good as using a
toothbrush. As for why the oil companies are installing touchless car
washes, could it have something to do with increasing their revenue and
profits?

If these are the best arguments he
can come up with, I’m guessing he knows his arguments don’t hold water, so to
speak.

Brent Jones

Meridian, Idaho

We love our readers, especially
when they do our jobs for us.

Consumer
Reports?

Nice slander job on the Consumer Reports article. Your headline
“Consumer Reports Nixes Domestics” is
great sensationalism. By the way, I wondered if you considered the other
headline — Consumer Reports Nixes
Europeans? Of course that wouldn’t be nice to all of the Euro owners out
there.

And I’m sure that the readers of
Consumer Reports, who are told to buy Asian cars, would never give false
feedback. Why be embarrassed like that? I used to subscribe to CR. I bought a 2002 Honda Odyssey and a
2002 Lexus ES 300. The Honda went through two transmissions, two sets of rotors,
an air conditioning compressor, and a host of electrical problems by the time it
had 25,000 miles on it. I sat impatiently at the Honda dealership countless
times waiting for repairs to be fixed, with a full waiting room, of other
displeased Honda owners with the same problems, I might add.

The Lexus was better. Right up to
the point of me hitting 19,459 miles, when the engine seized up. Lexus told me I
put the wrong oil in and would have to pay for a new engine. When I produced
records of oil changes AT THE LEXUS DEALERSHIP, they didn’t know what to
say. Or should I say, didn’t have
anything to say for six weeks, while they contacted Toyota. I sold both of
those recommended vehicles, and canceled my subscription to Consumer Reports.

But I’m glad that you hold them in
such high regard. I’m sure there isn’t a reliable domestic owner among you. I
guess I buck the trend with my reliable recommended Chrysler Town & Country
and Cadillac CTS-V. Your biasness is becoming blatant.

We have significant respect for
CR, but we do have concerns, as well,
and that includes the possibility of a built-in bias among their traditional
respondents, as Mr. Davis points out.

Among our core team, at
TheCarConnection.com, there are European, Asian, and domestic owners. (And among
my family, I can report your concerns about the Odyssey have been duplicated.)
All this said, the news briefs in Daily Edition are not designed for us to go
into depth, nor to editorialize, at every opportunity. Thus, we stuck to the
basics on the CR Top 10 list, rather than
speculating on its methodology and possible biases.